FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2018 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE CROSS

Enjoy being in a glass house, rather than the dog house!!

BabyDrive Verdict

I went to Cricks Mitsubishi in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast, where they kindly let me review the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. I had no pre-ideas of this car but my first thoughts were it feels active and sporty from its exterior styling and this I found carried on into the interior. So I was keen to find out how this little SUV would sum up as a BabyDrive.

The model I tested was the top spec Exceed AWD CVT, so it had all the bells and whistles! Some I found useful others were just completely unnecessary!

I could install two child seats in the back, in the outer seats. A rear-facing Britax Unity infant capsule and a rear-facing Britax Graphene.

There are ISO Fix in those two outer seats, the connectors poke out of the seat base and were easy to locate and connect to.

There are three top tether points one in each of the rear seat backrests, easily accessible through the boot. They are hidden within the seat back fabric and I found them easy to connect to.

Installing the child seats was easy and I found that the space in the cab for front passengers was good with rear-facing child seats installed.

In the boot, space was a little tighter and with the rear seats in their furthest back position, I did struggle fitting the two double strollers in!

When the boot was empty I fitted 10 shopping bags. With the Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller, I fitted 2 bags alongside it.

The Britax Flexx Tandem stroller just fitted with two shopping bags as well.

The Britax Flexx single stroller was a much easier fit, with four shopping bags.

The Eclipse Cross feels like the boot is a tad too small and that space has been given to the cabin where there is a good amount of space. You can adjust the distribution of space between the boot storage and the cabin legroom by sliding the seats back and forward (the seats slide and fold 60:40).

Visibility is a little compromised by the lack of small triangular windows at the rear side pillars creating a dark tunnel effect in the back. The spoiler split back windscreen creates some blind spot areas too, especially around the rear side pillars. With the addition of the sunroof, there is something beautiful in the design of the glass that goes all the way over the car in an arch from the boot to the bonnet! Especially along forest lined roads 🙂

I think the touch pad control on the central console is unnecessary and just a gimmick. I didn't find it useful at all, I managed to change the radio volume using it JUST but other than that I don't think it added anything and I'd have much rather the cost of that was used elsewhere to improve more important things!

The media screen is nice and clear, but the beeps are really annoying, everything beeps to let you know about anything and everything in the Eclipse Cross it seemed!! I couldn't work out how to turn them off so perhaps worryingly you actually can't!

The head-up display is a nice feature as I do find them good to use. The manual button to bring it out of the dash again feels like a complete gimmick!

There is a little wind or road noise while driving and the car becomes lurchy when accelerating.

I did have a scary experience on my test drive where the intelligent cruise control emergency stopped because of traffic on the other side of the road. It obviously thought it was on my side and slammed on the brakes at 80km/h. Luckily there was no one behind me or anyone else in the car!

The Eclipse Cross scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2017 and has seven airbags as standard.

BabyDrive Indepth

BabyDrive Indepth - Storage

I could get a maximum of 10 shopping bags In the Eclipse Cross boot.

In order to fit the Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller in the boot, I had to put the rear seats into their most upright position. It was a real squeeze but it fitted with two shopping bags beside it.

The Britax Flexx tandem stroller only just fitted too. It had to go width ways across the boot it as wouldn't fit lengthways with two shopping bags beside it.

The Britax Flexx single stroller fitted lengthways in the boot with four shopping bags beside it.

The Britax Holiday compact stroller fitted in the boot easily with 9 shopping bags, it's such a compact stroller!

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.

Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.

I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

The boot space in the Eclipse cross has a solid boot floor with plastic moulded wells at the sides. There is also storage in the boot floor for the retractable roller blind but I couldn't store it under the boot floor as it sat on top, making a bit of an obstacle in the floor. The cargo blind is nice and light but I always find them hard to remove without damaging the sides of the car and the Eclipse Cross is no exception!

There is a light and a bag hook on the left of the boot and cargo net hooks in the floor.

In the front of the Eclipse Cross cabin, the front door bins will hold my large refillable water bottle, a 600ml water bottle fits but rattles around in there. My wallet or iPad would fit in there too.

The glove box is not enormous but it does have two sections to it; the normal area at the bottom and then a shelf in the top which I found great for keeping my wallet in.

Inside the central console storage box is a glasses holder, which is lined, it's a great feature as there is not one in the ceiling.

The bottom of the central console storage box has some lining in it too. There are two coffee cup holders in the central console. Good for holding a disposable and reusable coffee cup. My large refillable water bottle and a 600ml bottle fit in there nicely too.

In front of the gear lever is a rubber lined well, which I found good for my phone as there were also two USB sockets and a 12V socket.

In the rear doors in the cabin their are good size wells, which I find are really useful for keys or little things my daughter has in her hands when I'm putting her in and out of the car.

The door bins in the back are tiny, they were only big enough to hold a 600ml water bottle or Pigeon baby bottle.

On the back of the front seats are 1/3 size solid map pockets, they would conceal what you put in them but are definitely not deep enough for an iPad.

In the central seat back there is a fold-down armrest with two cup holders. They would hold a re-usable coffee cup, disposable coffee cup or a sippy cup.

BabyDrive Indepth - Noise

The parking sensors in the Eclipse Cross I found came on very, very late when you are just a few inches from impact! Which is perhaps okay if it's a stationary object but not if a child were there. For me, it felt dangerously late to give you time to react. Their sound is a very high pitched, loud and shrill beeeeeeeeeping and I found I couldn't adjust its volume.

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!

That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.

If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?

It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?

A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.

Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!

I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

The seatbelt removal beep is very high pitched, you get that along with a dashboard light illumination flashes up to let you know whether the front or rear passengers have their seatbelt fastened, which I think was a good BabyDrive feature.

I found you can come to a stop in the Eclipse Cross and open your door to get out and take your seatbelt off with the engine still running without any alarms going off!

Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!

SO this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car I am not a bad mother!!)

The Eclipse Cross has a few fancy gadgets, a head-up display that you can control yourself with a button by your right knee! To raise it out of the dashboard and to retract it away again, you can also adjust the height of the projection too.

The dashboard of the Eclipse Cross is very minimal, there is just the aircon controls, 12V and USB sockets. Everything else is controlled through the screen or the steering wheel controls.

There is a touch pad system for controlling the media screen. I found it more of a gimmick than actually being useful or usable while driving. The Eclipse Cross has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The indicators over the engine and road noise are not too loud, so I don't think it would disturb any sleeping passengers.

There was no Sat-Nav in the in-car system I tested.

The window mechanism is quite loud and they close with a good thump that may disturb a sleeping child. The same with the doors, they open nice and quietly but close with a definite thump!

With baby asleep you can get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy. The same for the windows their mechanism is not too noisy and I didn’t notice them having a loud opening or closing sound.

With baby asleep you want to be able to get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy and wake Bub up!

The cruise control is easy to use, and I did find that at 80km/h on undulating roads it actually remained pretty accurate which I was not expecting! I did find however during the same test that the intelligent cruise control actually came to an emergency stop because it mistook oncoming traffic as being an obstacle on my side of the road. It would have been really disturbing if I had passengers onboard and dangerous had there been any traffic behind me.

There is blind spot warning in the Eclipse Cross I tested which I really like and lane departure warning. I found this didn't try to keep me in lane it just beeps an alert and flashes up on the display.

There is a low constant noise driving the Eclipse Cross, wind or road surface hum. Engine noise is only really when trying to accelerate. Also, the engine is noisy and lurches especially up hills.

BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats

There are five seats in the Eclipse Cross, I managed to fit two rear-facing child seats in the back, one in each of the outer seats: The Britax Graphene and the Britax Unity infant capsule.

There are top tether points across all three rear seats, situated in the back of the backrests and easily accessible through the boot. The top tether points are inside slits in the seat back fabric. They are labelled and quite easy to locate.

There are ISO Fix in the two outer seats in the back. They are not within plastic guides but they do protrude out of the seat bases so they are easy to locate and I found them easy to connect to.

I found installing the child seats was simple, however, I did notice that the central seatbelt has to cross over the ISO Fix strap in order to work in the central seat so, if you are using that at the same time as the ISO Fix it would be very difficult. In reality I the gap between the two child seats is so small I can't imagine anyone would actually be able to sit in the central seat so the scenario may never arise.

The second-row seats do slide to adjust the legroom. I tested the boot capacity with the second-row seats in their furthest back position because in reality when rear-facing child seats are installed you will probably need them the furthest back possible in order for the front passengers to have enough legroom.

Posting Bub into their seat from outside is actually a tight space the roof slopes down at the back so there was less room to slide Bub in as the doorway space seems to be in front of the child seat rather than behind it, which is great for forward facing passengers!

When posting Bub into their child seat from inside, the ceiling feels a bit low so you have a little less room to post Bub in.

Australia being a country of weather extremes – blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!

With one child seat installed there is plenty of room to feed Bub in the back.

The seats in the model I tested were leather so easily wiped clean and there are not any perforations or too many seams or stitching making them easier to clean too.

BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort

The front seats are quite comfortable, the driver's seat has electronic adjustment controls and the passenger adjustment is manual. The levers for those do feel rather cheap and flimsy.

The front seat headrest does allow for a ponytail!

I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get it just right too… said no new mum ever!!!

The second row of seats is split 60:40 and they slide independently for legroom so you could have a bit of extra boot space on one side and extra legroom on the other for example. With rear facing child seats installed the legroom in the cabin is not too bad, so depending on the height of your front passengers you could give a little over to the boot for extra storage if needed. At least the Eclipse Cross gives you that flexibility.

The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.

There is a lit vanity mirror in both front visors. There is a sunroof so there is no glasses case in the ceiling but there is the glasses holder in the central console, which is a thoughtful feature.

The interior lights in the front are press on and the rear lights can be reached from the driver's seat, which is fantastic!

I often will reach back to turn on the interior light if I am driving at night time, I find my little girl gets less distressed traveling at night that way. It helps if I can reach the interior light from the drivers seat so I can turn it on and off whilst driving. I often find my daughter will need it on as we start our journey in the dark but once she falls asleep I can turn it off.

It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.

Rear visibility in the Eclipse Cross is similar to that of the Honda Civic with a spoiler dividing the rear windscreen. It does give you a really deep back windscreen and with the sunroof open, I LOVED driving on tree-lined country roads and enjoying the 180-degree tree canopy view!

Visibility out of the rear side windows is quite limited, for the driver and rear-facing passengers. The Eclipse Cross does feel quite dark and hemmed in at the rear side pillars. I think most cars have a small triangular window there that the Eclipse Cross doesn't so it does give that darkened, tunnel effect.

There are handles above the rear doors are although they are positioned slightly too far forward but do still hold a child's toy.

The general aesthetic of the Eclipse Cross there are lots of panels of black shiny plastic that feel cheap, it definitely not the worst I have tested but it feels built to a price.

There are floor mats throughout and this model has keyless entry but does not have a powered tailgate.

BabyDrive Indepth - Safety

The Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2017, with an adult occupancy protection score of 97%, and rating of 36.9 out of 38 points.

It scored 7.96 out of 8 for the frontal offset test, and 8/8 for both the side impact test and the pole test.

For child occupancy protection the Eclipse Cross scored 78% (38.2 out of 49.)

The crash test performance for a 6-year-old scored 10.95 and the crash test performance for a 10-year-old scored 10.04.

In the testing they found in the frontal offset test, dummy readings from the 10-year-old dummy indicated weak protection of the neck. The protection of all other critical body areas was good or acceptable for both the 6-year-old and 10-year-old dummies. In the side impact test, protection of both dummies was good and maximum points were scored.

For child safety features and child seat installation the Eclipse Cross scored 6 points for safety features and 11.25 points for installation check.

For pedestrian protection, the Eclipse Cross was scored 80% (33.8 out of 42) and for safety assist it was scored 71% (8.6 out of 12).

The Eclipse Cross does have seven airbags as standard, dual frontal and side airbags in the front, drivers knee airbag and curtain airbags for the second-row side passengers.